Attenborough’s climate facts fell off a cliff with the Walruses

Is this the tipping point for David Attenborough’s reputation?

Will anyone see David Attenborough the same way again after the Netflix debacle that is “Climate Change: The Facts”?

The Attenborough subspecies may present itself as an impartial scientist but under scrutiny this is revealed to be a chameleon-like illusion that hides the real intent, which appears to be to garner prizes, funds, fame and better dinner invitations. Evolutionarily, Attenborough may be seeking to increase his own status (and resources for kin) at the expense of taxpayers, donors and hapless walruses.

The facts turn out to be half-truths that fit the pattern of exploiting primal fears to create deep psychological spin. He says “we don’t know” but then shows the opposite — associating every kind of bad weather, fire, and storm with man-made emissions even though data shows that these were worse in the past or are caused by other factors. In probably his lowest career point, rumours are spreading that not only did thriving polar bears cause the falling walrus episode rather than coal power stations, but his crew may have killed walruses unwittingly by being there. Paul Homewood argues the team itself scared the walruses by flying drones near the herd and spooking them, or blocking their exit path. Attenborough’s team deny this, but the “trust me” answer doesn’t sit well with past behavior. They didn’t mention the presence of polar bears in the documentary, nor past walrus-on-the-rocks deaths, they blamed it all (improbably) on a lack of sea ice — as if walruses climb high cliffs to escape the open sea, and they won’t say when and where it was filmed. In short, there’s no trust left in the Attenborough-trust-bucket.

Let’s pause for one minute’s silence to mark the death of a once great reputation.

[World Tribune] There was an incident in Russia in 2017 where polar bears were reported to have spooked a herd of walruses, causing them to fall off a cliff to their deaths. Crockford believes this is the event that was filmed by the documentary crew.

“The film crew have steadfastly refused to reveal precisely where and when they filmed the walrus deaths shown in this film in relation to the walrus deaths initiated by polar bears reported by The Siberian Times in the fall of 2017,” Crockford said.

The film’s message was so bleak it could have been made by Extinction Rebellion, the eco-anarchist protest group which has brought Central London to a standstill.

Watching it did fill me with horror, but not at the threat from global warming. It was at the way Sir David and the BBC presented a picture of the near future which was so much more frightening than is justified.

…it is a grotesque travesty of the truth to claim that ‘nothing’ has been done: for example, since 1990, UK emissions have fallen by 43 per cent, according to the Government’s Committee on Climate Change. Not only that, Government statistics say 56 per cent of our electricity came from low carbon sources in 2018, our last coal-fired power station will close in six years and the Government has pledged to ‘decarbonise’ electricity by 2030.

Above all, the Climate Change Act requires Britain to reduce its 1990 carbon emissions by no less than 80 per cent by the year 2050…

What I won’t let go is this growing practice … of trying to link every adverse weather event to climate change. In this, Attenborough’s documentary was a masterclass.

If you are going to present a film called Climate Change: the Facts the very least you should be doing is, well, presenting the facts. Well here they are, in two of the areas which made up such a hefty part of the film: wildfires and hurricanes. Are wildfires increasing?

…the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) [data] shows no upwards trend in the number of wildfires in the US over the past 30 years. Take another way of measuring wildfires – the acreage burned, in figure two of this data – and there is an upwards trend since the 1980s.

It is little wonder that terrified kids are skipping school to protest against climate change. Never mind climate change denial, a worse problem is the constant exaggeration of the subject.

193 comments to Attenborough’s climate facts fell off a cliff with the Walruses

This walking test pattern is yet another “living treasure” who knows exactly how to get and keep that treasure status (while refusing it). I believe the whole “living treasure” thing started with trad Japanese craftspeople but the world’s propagandists and manipulators were quick to seize on it. After all, criticise or disagree with a living treasure – eg say “he’s a broadcaster” – and you may as well shoot Skippy or tell little Virginia there’s no Santa Claus.

Well, guess what. He’s a broadcaster. And apart from some odd jobs early in life, that’s all he’s ever been. I’m not knocking odd jobs or broadcasting. I’m just saying…

The quote I love is that one of his detractors, Dr Brodie, claims that young people understand climate change threats better than Ridd:

“Dr Brodie is not surprised that Dr Ridd’s supporters are using his case as evidence climate change is not a serious threat, but thinks most people — but particularly young people — now understand that isn’t true.”

I guess he has full confidence that the youth have been indoctrinated by the Green education blob.

I find the concept of ‘A Living Treasure’ or a ‘National Treasure’ amusing.

After all, what do you do with treasures? You lock them up so the public can’t get their greasy mitts on them. Sure, some end up on public display, but you can’t actually interact with them in any meaningful way.

So whenever I hear that someone has been declared a ‘Treasure’ – usually by someone in the MSM – I automatically wonder if that person would be best locked away.

I expect the alarmists are all trying to (literally) make as much hay as they can while the sun is still shining. They know that a minimum is on the way and their whole house of cards is about to come tumbling down.

If we do get a mini ice age or any ice age for that matter it will be proof of climate change – the climate changed didn’t it? But now as to the actual cause that’s an entirely different argument. That’s the problem with the term climate change, anything can attributed to climate change it seems nowadays.

When it was global warming we knew what they were on about. The Earth was/is warming because of CO2 emissions, the term climate change is a catch all for anything that changes for whatever reason – and not just due to CO2 emissions or increasing temperatures.!

Mal, I fear you are right. Sometimes I ask folk which wavelengths of infra red light are involved with carbon dioxide or how close carbon dioxide is to saturation. They are totally lost, – they have zero idea of what I’m on about. The sad facts are that the majority of Australians are clueless about elementary physics. I know people who claim to have science degrees who look a bit puzzled ! What hope is there ?

Quite agree with you both. I strongly suspect the warmistas just know they’re part of a massive lie, a scam, if you will; they know why they’re involved too, and obviously want to conceal the truth, at all costs, as exemplified by the climategate scam where the liars-in-chief were desperately trying to cover it all up and not let the emails escape to the world!

There is also a moral dimension to this- how would most people live with themselves knowing that thier lies were messing people up, cutting jobs, employment and destroying thier kids and grandkids libvelihoods and dignity.

I hate it when snowflakes quickly say “dont judge me!!”

From my experience, when they say that, its a way of stopping people from actually providing some form of critical assessment of what is often complete nonense / typical leftist rubbish.

News flash – you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting……

We all perform some form of judgement/assessment/discernment when we assess new information.

Many thanks bemused,
Great video, good sound, picture and message. 28 minutes. Another scientist getting out there in spite of significant opposition. And I just loved her use of the word “backfired”.
That diminishing summer sea ice benefits both bears and their prey is new news, but suppressed until she got it out.
Congratulations to Susan Crockford Ph.D.
Cheers
Dave B

“A powerful sequence in Attenborough’s documentary showed an orangutan, fleeing loggers who have been eradicating Borneo’s rainforest.
This is disastrous for both wildlife and the climate because, as the film pointed out, a third of global emissions are down to deforestation, because giant trees lock up a lot of carbon.”

One of the many thing not mentioned is that any deforestation removes trees that lock up a lot of carbon, whether the deforestation is for palm oil production, for solar farms or for windfarms. The difference is that trees removed for wind and solar farms don’t grow back until sites are cleared and rehabilitated (if ever) whereas, when trees are removed for palm oil production, palm trees which turn CO2 into carbon and oxygen, are planted.

It has been mentioned elsewhere, that trees are cut down in the US, converted to wood pellets and shipped to Europe as biomass to be burned, but the EU considers the removal of these trees as OK because trees grow back, even though the trees removed are often hardwood which take 100 years to grow

Not that much native lumber is being harvested here in the US anymore relative to the pine harvested from tree farms. And most of the native lumber being harvested is of less desirable types not typically used in Construction. These days the highest quality hard woods are used mostly for veneer or for some high dollar furniture. Fact is much of what is not already protected is gone or broken into smaller groves. I suspect most here are familiar with the USS Constitution. The best quality woods from all over the US were transported to the yard in Massachusetts for her construction. The great strength of “Old Iron Sides” came in part from it’s design but also from the high quality dense woods used in it’s construction. Woods of a quality that were practically nonexistent in western Europe by the late 1700s due to centuries of over harvesting for various construction and to build and maintain the massive fleets that Britain, France, Spain and others had sustained for so long. By the 1700′s England was importing substitutes from their colonies for their naval construction. While the US had more than abundant native lumber of the highest quality. The ship recently went through a major overhaul. Now the US Government keeps special groves of the wood types needed to keep the Constitution in top form. A protected grove of the now very rare and slow growing Live Oak is specifically set aside for use to replace the vessels heavy structural members. Here in southern Indiana is the Crane Naval support facility nestled in the area of the Hoosier National Forrest and various state parks. Specific White Oak trees at Crane are set aside for replacing the cladding, deck beams, and keel. https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/05/11/the-wooden-walls/

RAH, “By the 1700′s England was importing substitutes from their colonies for their naval construction”. Ssshhh, don’t tell the whack-tivists, it was a white male sailing a re-commissioned collier (ex-coal-carrying ship) for his king and country and scientific research, Lieutenant James Cook, who discovered magnificent stands of mighty kauri trees proliferating on these islands and, recognising their tall straight trunks would be ideal for ships’ masts and spars, set in motion the demise of these once great forest giants.

“Captain Cook named Man O’ War Bay after dropping anchor there on his 1769 voyage. He observed that the kauri trees growing there would make ideal masts for the Man O’ War sail powered wooden battleships which formed the backbone of British naval supremacy for more than two centuries”.

Hey, the guy wasn’t perfect, but at least he didn’t pollute and warp the minds of millions of gullible TV zombies the way Davos Attenbollocks has. Far too many of my friends, whom I thought were a little more onto it, have been repeating word-for-word his walrus nonsense since it first ‘took to the air’ so to speak. We’re losin’ them, Doc – their brains have almost gone…

Fair bit of folk tale, wishful thinking and massive generalisation of basic naval history in your link there Greg.

The article goes on to suggest that wood from this area was used in some of the ships at Trafalgar (1805) which, while still on the ends of the bell curve of possibility and cannot without deeper research be completely eliminated, is very unlikely given the dates relative to serious European settlement in the area.

Following up with some casual reading on the Kauri there are records of four Royal Navy ships definitely collecting Kauri wood from New Zealand, but given the size of the ships involved, the 20 year period for the four ship’s visits and the overall size of the Royal Navy even in peace time these four wood gathering missions are an amusing footnote rather than compelling evidence.

While it is true that the need to secure strategic timber reserves was seen as important (Norfolk Island for example was settled for the Norfolk Island Pine which were, incorrectly, assumed to be useful for shipbuilding), the dedicated removal of Kauri didn’t seem to start until 1820 when the ‘traditional’ sail warship was beginning to decline. They are putting steam engines into Ships of the Line around about this period and by 1870 were confident enough in the power of steam and coal to build battleships without any sails at all. (HMS Devastation)

I put it less to be the desire of the Royal Navy to build new warships and more the largely unregulated concept of ‘look! Free trees!’ that reduced the forests. If anything it could be argued that advances in coal, iron and steam reduced the need for wood and for areas outside of Europe at least, saved many of the forests.

MudCrab, ya mean I’ve been telling porkies to my overseas guests all these years? Then again, such a skill may get me a job with S.D.A.’s film crew where I can travel the world, film it, then invent some “folk tale, wishful thinking and massive generalisation” about cute fluffy wild dangerous animals battling climate change rolling with ancient natural ebbs-and-flows.

Waiheke Island, or Te Motu Arai Roa (the-island-sheltering-long), is home to numerous Alternatives and old Greenpeace sailors/crew: maybe one of their faithful wrote-up the brief synopsis to taint Captain Cook’s memory (seems to be one of the activists’ many flavours-of-the-day at the mo). Having worked in the house-building industry there 20 years ago, some of the old chippies (carpenters) told me most of the kauri ended up in either Melbourne, Australia or San Francisco, USA where it was prized for… floorboards!

In the meantime, after eight whole days in a row of calm, pleasant, late summer sunshine (unprecedented! must be our fault) we finally had some ‘weather’ today as the ‘eye’ of a weakening low lazily spiralled around us, firing out lightning, rolling booming thunder, and whipping out a few little waterspouts for keen observers to enjoy [4 photos in above link].

Save a tree: build a steam engine. Save a whale: discover an oil field. Save a planet: go back to school and learn some history and geology and biology and…

I used to own a house in the Hunter Valley NSW. It was built probably in the early 1900′s. It had Kauri floorboards, wallboards, and ceiling boards, with Oz hardwood cladding. There were lots of old houses of the same construction in the area and there is a lot of old furniture of the time made from Kauri. I had a passion for collecting that furniture. So there was definately large volumes of Kauri in the Newcastle region early 1900s, enough so that it was easy to find it 100 years later. I enjoyed tramping in the forests where it came from in NZ. I had always wondered why there were so few to no knots in that timber. It became obvious when one walks in an old Kauri forest.

Have you checked to see if any vessels for the RN were built in yards in NZ or Australia. I know for a fact that the RN in the late 17 and early 1800s were building Sloops, Brigs, and other smaller war ships at certain Colonial yards where suitable lumber was in ready supply. I seem to recall though that Ships of the line and Frigates however were built at home yards.

The programmes that he now appears in, and others of similar polemic nature, cost a great deal of money to produce.
All the BBC’s money is obtained from the public, either by licence fee or grant from Govt (ie from taxpayers.
Such sums have to be authorised by someone high in the organisation and noone so far has identified the source of the enormous expenditure. What do we know of their scientific credibility? What are their political and financial links? What motivates their agenda?
I am inclined towards NB’s suggestion that Attenborough is just the patsy, to divert attention from the true source of the propaganda.
to put it another way, Attenborough is just the monkey, who is the organ grinder?

Given that he is 93 and that he doesn’t seem to have been out of work for most of his career I would offer that if he hasn’t already secured enough money to live in comfort for the rest of his life then he needs to start auditing his accountant.

I would say he is not doing this for the money and knows exactly what he is doing. On the plus side at least, if you are 93 and trying to save the world for future generations then at least your INTENT can be regarded as selfless. I mean not as if he is some Millennial constantly moaning how Old People have broken all the milk and honey they were entitled to.

Sir David brought the natural world into a generation of lounge rooms and deserves credit for his monumental works. A few years ago he admitted he now merely narrates what others have researched and filmed because the BBC recognises that we enjoy his pattern of delivery. Our criticism ought to be directed at those who produce these films but in Australia it’s quite hard to read the credits because the ABC flicks through them with dismissive speed or even advertises the next show while those who’ve given months of their careers to the film get treated with irrelevance.

C’mon now! Keep your attention on the starving poster children, not those flying walrus! We all know Walrus can’t fly and so do the Poley Bears. The Poley Bears are the ones who are supposed to be starving to death because the ice is melting and they can’t catch all those harp seals they need to eat! Forget they can swim over 600km per week. Sure, Walrus-on-the-Rocks would help feed them, and stave off that starvation! But ignore it. Lots’ of walrus where those come from. They aren’t an “endangered species,” not like Poley Bears.

Keep your eyes on the Polar Bears! Stay Focused on those cubs (with Mother) floating around on those melting postage stamp sized icebergs.They’re the ones to be saved.
Don’t go wandering off after all those seals with the big dentures.

(Dumb humans … can’t stay with a story … got the concentration of a gnat and the vision of a walrus … always haring off after something else … must be those magic words Climate Change! Brings out the stupidity everywhere …)

I seem to have read somewhere that the BBC pension fund is heavily invested in renewables.
Also that a BBC committee has decided that they will no longer consider the alternative views on Global Warming on any programme as ‘the science is settled’.

Oh the poor fund members! It would seem that they (the fund trustees) haven’t read the memo about the alt-energy sources. There is a 435-page book (by the memo’s author) on the subject of … ummm … climate change and … ummm opificium illegitimi et mendaxi (that’s latin for that f***d-word! opificium = business, although praestigium might be better than that mouthful …) and the people and motivations behind it which the pension fund might need to rescue itself, hopefully before it is too late!

For various reasons I follow a bit of French media. The stifling of various anti-Macron outfits like TVLibertés was blatant but at least predictable after Macron’s staged electoral win against thin air. What shocked was how the deservedly popular and non-political Franck Ferrand history show on radio was replaced by a new show with the same name but minus Franck. The rejig has a ham-fisted political message with every episode, to the point that it’s clownish and unlistenable. Something informative and entertaining has been turned to globalist gunk.

If possible, it’s worse in England now. The cult of the presenter on the BBC was bad enough. How much time was I supposed to spend watching some self-satisfied Pom model scarves (though Lucy prefers collars), drive a car (shot from inside, then from out through windshield), look pensive or amused, walk down hallways and up steps into important buildings. But the heavy politicisation has been the end for me. I’ve turned them off, even if the subject promises to be interesting.

Maybe I shouldn’t be inside looking at nature anyway. Watching the the swampies with their tiny joeys just outside my fence has been a joy this autumn. More of that perhaps.

The church was old, Attenburg is old. Old things eventually reach the end of their useful life and some things weren’t even all that useful, even in their prime. Send in the bulldozers – redevelop – move on.

… whereas the Nigel Farage Show (youtube) is hilarious with biting criticism and trenchant wit gouging the UK politicians and establishment. Love it.

Farage formed the Brexit Party less than four weeks ago and it scored over 50% popularity in a poll only a few days ago! He’s hit a political nerve! He’s sounding and looking like a 21st Century Oliver Cromwell although without the military backing.

On other youtube commentaries Treason Mae is becoming a (not really surprising) epithet.

I understand the Tower is empty of unilaterally accommodated guests at present — apart from its guarding Beefeaters — so there’s plenty of room to reinstate that tradition. The sharpening of the Headsman’s Axe could also be reintroduced as a regular public ceremony!

Attenborough was always someone who sounded questionable to me. His position about whatever it was raised a red flag and I gave him no more attention after that. It’s a shame in a way because he was pretty good at presenting whatever it was. He was all those things you would want in your spokesman except for one thing, the Emperor had no clothes on.

Oh come now Yoni, the BBC produces some fine drama, mystery and other good entertainment and being non commercial you get 55 minutes of program instead of 40 with 20 minutes of advertising. So only Netflix can afford to run the good stuff here in the states.

The problem is that they don’t stick to the thing they do well but try to be jack-of-all-trades, making them master of none.

To flop at journalism is to flop all the way around.

That old adage is overlooked too often. But it’s still the truth and has something useful to say.

Attenborough is probably the worst, presumably because time is running out for that sainthood. The whole ‘nature documentary’ genre has been ruined though, like everything the Left touches. They infected the TV media decades ago, but only recently have they had the critical mass (and sufficient allies in the public service and print media) to blatantly and overtly corrupt it.

There is little I can stomach on TV these days, and even when I find something that doesn’t raise my blood pressure within seconds of the opening titles, you can bet that the Left’s agenda will soon assert itself and wreck it.

I am slowly running out of options. Radio was ruined years ago, when the only choice was wall-to-wall leftist propaganda or listening to juveniles gigglig at each other’s ‘humour’ in between playing atrocious noises.

The internet is currently my safe space, though it is shrinking before my eyes as, once again, the Left asserts control over more and more of its formerly ‘free’ regions.

Ha! My fire ring is only 20 paces out of my way when I walk from my mail box to my side door. Always have plenty of paper in that ring when I’m ready to start a fire. Far more trees are felled to keep up the constant flow of unsolicited BS that goes into my fire pit than that I deem worthy of taking into my house.

We read it in book form but Jack London was writing at a time when authors had novels serialized in magazines; Call Of The Wild was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post and The Sea Wolf in Century magazine. Century readers in their droves would have cancelled subscriptions had Hump and Maud cohabited.

To show how the Murdoch press gets up to the same game as the Beeb when it suits:

From the same report on the Easter Bunny Boiler, first this…“Brits have been hitting the beaches and parks today to bask in a record-breaking 24C Easter Sunday scorcher.”

Then further along (at which point the mugs have stopped reading, distracted by Harry and Meghan’s post-polo smooch)…“The UK’s warmest Easter temperature was the 29.4C recorded at Camden Square in London on Easter Saturday in 1949.”

We all know how Saturdays can be hotter than Sundays. And Easter was four days earlier in 1949. That would account for a mere 5.4C, right?

Pity they weren’t allowed to put the second bit in small print. Still, there have to be some standards of journalistic rigor maintained!

m&m, AccuNonsense have modernised adjusted this headline three times today which originally shouted: “Snow falls in Western Australia while Melbourne bakes in 30 C heat for the 1st time in decades”. Whoah! Say it ain’t so! Little-by-little the missing “this late in April” and other variations magically appeared. And talking of re-writing history, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center issued this pdf explaining their reasons for upping last year’s Cat 4 Hurricane Michael to a now Category 5 monster. Lots of numbers and graphs to cause one’s eyes to go all blurry but on a quick read looks like a single gust of wind is their excuse –

21 Apr: UK Express: FREAK WEATHER: Extreme snowstorm strikes Middle East amid ‘APOCALYPTIC’ flash flood fears
By Oli Smith
The ***mysterious and extreme weather has caused bizarre ‘ice floods’ to sweep across deserts in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. The freezing plunge in temperatures has perplexed meteorologists in a region that is typically basking in scorching sunshine at this time of year. Last week, several parts of Tunisia were hit by snow and torrential rainfall, causing fatalities…

21 Apr: JNS: Passover snow falls on Mount Hermon for first time in 22 years
With eight inches already on the ground and snow expected to continue to fall throughout the day, the Hermon ski-resort management closed the site to visitors.
Snowfall was also reported in towns in the Golan Heights…

Massive rainfalls this year broke a five-year drought. Measurements at the Kinneret showed over triple last year’s rainfall.
The Kinneret, Israel’s primary natural water source, rose from just 16 inches away from the Black Line—the point past which the lake becomes ecologically imbalanced—to 11.25 feet from the Black Line as of April 20.
It is now 8.75 feet from its upper limit, after which point it would flood its banks.https://www.jns.org/passover-snow-falls-on-mount-hermon-for-first-time-in-22-years/

PICS: 22 Apr: TheNationalUAE: Kuwait Airways plane damaged by ‘sudden impact of snow’
Pilots managed to land safely despite the aircraft suffering extensive nose damage
by Hayley Skirka
A Kuwait Airways flight bound for Beirut was damaged after colliding with snow during its landing at Lebanon’s Rafiq Hariri International Airport on Sunday.
Images of the aircraft, which was damaged while flying at an altitude of 8,000 feet appeared on social media showing Flight KU501’s dented nose.

Kuwait Airways also took to social media, tweeting to confirm that the flight had been ‘hit by a sudden impact of a mass of snow passing.’…
Other news reports stated that the pilot of the plane had told the directorate general of civil aviation in Lebanon that the damage occurred due to an ice cloud rather than hail. A complete investigation into the incident is expected to clarify the exact cause.
A cyclone hit Lebanon and surrounding countries last week, bringing with it cold temperatures, gusts of snow, hail and strong wind…https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/travel/kuwait-airways-plane-damaged-by-sudden-impact-of-snow-1.852123

There has been a fair bit of cloud in Dubai and the general area lately. There were thunderstorms and rain while I was there and there were some dull days; late March is the usual time but it’s been into April this year.

I recall seeing one of those “How do they do it” programs a year or two ago about how do they maintain an indoor ski slope in Dubai. Using a lot of energy of course and pumping lots of CO2 into the atmosphere is how they do it. If the cold weather gets to Dubai, perhaps they might be able to have their ski slope without all the energy and CO2

22 Apr: Xinhua: Snowy winter gives temporary relief to endangered seals in Finland: biologist
The unusually snowy winter 2018-2019 has greatly improved the situation of the endangered Saimaa ringed seals in the Finnish eastern lake district.
“Seals construct their huts under the snow cover and this year it was easy to do so,” biologist Jouni Koskela of the Wildlife Service of the Forestry Board told national broadcaster Yle on Sunday.
Authorities have estimated that some 80 cubs were born this winter among the around 400-strong population of Saimaa ringed seals.
Seals have also migrated to areas not used by them for decades…

***Despite the temporary relief in the form of a snowy winter, the long-term prospect for the Saimaa ringed seal remains negative due to global warming. Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland keep developing man-made floating nests that seals could use if there is no snow…http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/22/c_137996512.htm

The Elders/BoM site reports a “heavy deluge”: “The Upper Western and Riverina regions were the worst affected with 37mm of rainfall at Cobar Airport.”

That’s right. They said worst affected! And the “heavy deluge” has been breaking records, like the 47mm which broke a five-year old record at Griffith. As for the 26mm for Tiboobura which broke a 16 year old record…oh the humanity!

This, like most of our media reporting on most subjects, is an exercise in deceiving without technically fibbing. The rest of the time they just fib.

G’day m,
I saw that also and almost spilt my cuppa all over me. I bet that water didn’t flow far and that the locals are cheering.
What a misuse of language or sheer stupidity from Wetherzone.
Cheers,
Dave B

Heard one of our MetService ‘experts’ on radio today – she sounded more like a child on her school holiday intern work job thingy – say hailstones “20 cm wide” could be falling over Auckland this afternoon. Eight inches?!?! We gonna die! When I had a moment later Ron, I checked their wobbly website and – chuckles – 20 mm or 2 cm was the official size. Kids these days, eh!

There was cheering by the folks
Of Griffith, Cobar & Tiboobura when it rained
Breaking all past records
But the Bureau of Misinformation alarmists
Don’t live in Griffith or Cobar
Or Tibooburra.
From their glass high rise towers
In Sydney & Melbourne
All they could see was
A wet dream disaster
Unfolding.

Could BoM be aiming for the World Meteorological Record in Superlatives Reporting … ‘hottest,’ ‘warmest,’ ‘driest,’ ‘wettest, ‘weirdest?’ Sure been a plethora of ‘S’ words around the traps in the last few years, lotsa’ hokey sticks. _/

22 Apr: CBS: Earth Matters: John Kerry on climate change, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 2020 hopefuls
By Lacy Scarmana, Anthony Martinez
As part of our Earth Matters series on this Earth Day, “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell spoke with former Secretary of State John Kerry on the “CBS This Morning” podcast.
Paris Climate Agreement
As secretary of state under President Obama, Kerry was instrumental in the 2016 signing of the international Paris climate agreement. Last year, the Trump administration announced its intent to withdraw from the agreement.
“It’s ideological, and frankly, it’s short-sighted and it’s stupid and it’s dangerous,” Kerry said. “President Trump’s decision to pull out of Paris will cost lives, lives of Americans. It will cost billions of dollars.”

In 2017, damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma cost the United States $265 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate experts assert we can trace the origins of some recent extreme weather to climate change.
“There are countless economic analyses that show it is cheaper to make the investments and do the things we need to do now to prevent the damage than it is to wait for the damage,” Kerry said. “Everything compels us to move in this direction except we have a president who doesn’t read, doesn’t understand the science and has ideologically decided to side with the deniers who literally don’t know what they’re talking about.”…https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-day-2019-john-kerry-on-climate-change-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-2020-democrats/

John Kerry, he of the inch thick carbon dioxide blanket which sits on top of the atmosphere and holds in all the AGW, is in the climate derangement vanguard and is no doubt one of the authority figures AOC relies on to support her deluded beliefs.

you can get anything published in FakeNewsMSM, so long as it fits the CAGW agenda. more and more it is ***”scientists” say, not even “climate scientists say”:

23 Apr: Glamour Mag: Climate Change Will Disproportionately Affect Women, So Why Are Their Voices Being Ignored?
by Elena Hilton
It’s no surprise that as sea levels rise, people who live in coastal cities will be at greater risk for flood or that parts of sub-Saharan African will have to contend with famine sooner than the Pacific Northwest will…
As ***scientists put it, climate change and gender are inextricably linked…

But here’s the (additional) problem: Even as scientists know that to be true, the vast majority of people who work in climate science are men. And sexism and prejudice within their ranks have an impact on the research that the field produces…

At the Union of Concerned Scientists, Rachel Cleetus, Ph.D., policy director for the climate and energy program, stresses that their climate team—which is primarily composed of women—is “always looking for that human connection” when conducting research…

“We have to be galvanized to action, not curled up in the corner and afraid. And there are a lot of solutions we have available to us,” Cleetus says. “Having that message of hope is something women can bring to this conversation. This is about transformation — societal, economic, technology transformation — but it’s about hope, ultimately.”https://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-disproportionately-affect-women-174854625.html

23 Apr: Yahoo: USA Today: 99.9999% chance humans are causing global warming, and other science-based facts on climate change for Earth Day
by Doyle Rice and Elizabeth Weise
Climate change is real and increasingly a part of our daily lives…
a 99.9999% chance that humans are the cause of global warming (LINK), a February study reported. That means we’ve reached the “gold standard” for certainty, a statistical measure typically used in particle physics…

Study lead author Benjamin Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, told Reuters that “the narrative out there that scientists don’t know the cause of climate change is wrong.”…

***Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to cut the level to 350 parts per million…

This study has already been shredded. Santer is competing with Mann for Hansen’s “Top Alarmist Scientist” trophy. Too close to call. Santer is famous for “adjusting” an early IPCC report to make it alarmist.

“Like, in July, the climate was 96 degrees and in February the climate was 36 degrees. OMG, like that’s a huge change in the climate in only” — she pauses to count her fingers — “four months! At this rate, the world is going to end in exactly 12 years,” adds Ava, who sports red lipstick and AOC-style glasses. “I also want to talk about socialism because socialism is so amazing,” the girl gushes. “Like, socialism is actually short for social media. I do social media, so I’m a socialist.” Chuckles.

22 Apr: Marketwatch: Earth Day: Stanford scientists see link between global warming and income inequality
By Andrew Keshner
This Earth Day, Stanford University researchers said gradual temperature increases over almost five decades have helped created financial disparities between poorer, typically warm countries and richer, typically cooler countries…
“Countries that are very warm tended to exhibit slower economic growth whereas on the cooler end of the range, cool countries have tended to experience faster economic growth,” climate scientist and study co-author Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford University professor and senior fellow, told MarketWatch…

Diffenbaugh is the guru of so-called “attribution” studies, which claim to say to what degree specific bad weather is due to human caused global warming. Pure junk. Looks like he is branching out into long term economic impacts. Interesting to see who funded this nonsense. That should be in the paper but may be pay walled.

Under the new Paris Accord rules, countries are supposed to “report” (that is, make up) specifically how they are being damaged by human caused climate change, every two years. Much opportunity for attribution junk work here, with damage claim lawsuits to follow.

“The researchers said they used climate models to determine how much individual countries have warmed, and what their economic output would have been in the absence of global warming…”

What a nonsense. Climate models being used instead of actual data to determine warming, probably because there was no actual data in the poorer countries, and using climate models to determine economic output.

21 Apr: Fox News: Bill de Blasio says Green New Deal will ban ‘inefficient’ steel and glass skyscrapers
by Lucia I. Suarez Sang; Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report
If the Big Apple is to become the Green Apple, it will have to ban the steel and glass towers that form its signature skyline, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
De Blasio, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” said that city’s most iconic structures – the tall skyscrapers seen from miles away – are the “biggest source of emissions” in New York City. The drastic change, and a switch to only renewable energy within five years, are necessary for Gotham to embrace the Green New Deal, de Blasio said.
“We are putting clear, strong mandates” to lower emissions, he said, warning property owners will face massive fines unless buildings are retrofitted…

“We’re going to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers, which are incredibly inefficient. If someone wants to build one of those things they can take a whole lot of steps to make it energy efficient, but we’re not going to allow what we used to see in the past.
De Blasio said private building owners will be required to slash their emissions by 30 percent by 2030…

In the same conversation that he was touting renewable energy and reducing emissions, de Blasio also defended his use of a gas-guzzling SUV for his daily 11-mile trips from Gracie Mansion to his Brooklyn gym.
“Let’s make clear, this is just a part of my life,” he said. “I come from that neighborhood in Brooklyn. That’s my home. I go there on a regular basis to stay connected to where I come from and not be in a bubble that I think for a lot of politicians is a huge problem.”…

It (the GND) is estimated to cost up to $93 trillion, or $600,000 per household, according to studies…
Later Monday – which is also Earth Day – de Blasio held a press conference to introduce further his $14 billion plan, called “OneNYC 2050: Building a Strong and Fair City.”…
“Every day we wait is a day our planet gets closer to the point of no-return. New York City’s Green New Deal meets that reality head on,” he said. “We are confronting the same interests that created the climate crisis and deepened inequality. There’s no time to waste. We’re taking action now, before it’s too late.”
Under his Green New Deal, de Blasio said the city is committing to carbon neutrality by 2050 and 100 percent clean electricity, including hydropower.https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bill-de-blasio-says-green-new-deal-will-ban-inefficient-steel-and-glass-skyscrapers

23 Apr: Bloomberg: Trump Ignores Climate Change in Earth Day Statement
By Ari Natter
President Donald Trump commemorated Earth Day with a message that included nods to “historic economic and job growth,” but made no mention of climate change.
“Environmental protection and economic prosperity go hand in hand,” Trump said in a statement issued Monday. “A strong market economy is essential to protecting our critical natural resources and fostering a legacy of conservation.”…
“My administration is committed to being effective stewards of our environment while encouraging opportunities for American workers and their families,” Trump said…

Another curious parallel between ‘conventional’ religion and the warmist faith is the way that they split into smaller and smaller denomintions, each crying, “Heretic!” at the others. You see, we hear from people like Fitzroy, who claim to have great faith in ‘science’, but what they truly mean is, they only believe in their own prophets, i.e. those who preach the exact same gospel. Other preachers (scientists who say that AGW isn’t happening, or isn’t as drastic as others claim) are denounced. So they cannot claim to ‘believe in science’ if they choose only to believe in the gospel according to him, him and her, but not her, her and him.

Hunh, I believe in the power of the scientific method, that is different than believing in science. On the other hand, your position is better aligned with the tradition that insists that there is only one true religion and belief in any other is to be condemned as heretical.

@ Peter & Andy,
I’m quite happy to accept that CO2 is infra red active at certain wavelengths but the IPCC reckons Mankind contributes about 1/20ieth of the annual CO2 budget and Prof Salby reckons that nature’s 19/20ieths is on the increase. If we stop burning coal and oil, stop ploughing up land and even stop exhaling it’s scarcely going to affect global CO2 levels. We certainly couldn’t measure the changes amid the plethora of other CO2 sinks and sources.

If air temps are going to rise from 288K to 289K sometime during the next century I think I’ll stick to dealing with the real problems in my life.

There is a body of evidence which details the way in which the CO2 molecule works and demonstrates how it contributes to heat retention in the troposphere. On the other hand, I have not seen a similar body of evidence which shows anything different.

“There is a body of evidence which details the way in which the CO2 molecule works and demonstrates how it contributes to heat retention in the troposphere. On the other hand, I have not seen a similar body of evidence which shows anything different.”

Utter garbage it’s a theory , evidence ? I’m not sure it means what you think it does .
Andy has been asking you continually for proof that CO2 does what you claim it does and have you finally given us all your answer ?

You do understand Putx the difference between an idea and proof don’t you ? Or does faith trump all ?

All the evidence is on the sites like NASA and Real Climate – but these sites are considered heretical here. Only CO2 Science, with its oil industry funding is allowed. So I can and have posted the evidence on numerous occasions, but immediately it is discounted by a version of ‘shoot the messenger’. Andy never actually puts up the proof of his counter view, so I don’t have any pressure to do any more than I already have.

Andy, there is a difference between the scientific method, which is probably the greatest invention for the age of enlightenment, and little factoids as quoted on Mr Watt’s site.
Are you saying that the scientific method is faulty?

If in fact you believed in the scientific method then you would know that the physics upon which the climate models are based demands that there be a persistent “hot spot” in the upper troposphere over the tropics. Despite very diligent searching none has been found. They know this but just ignore it and thus the climate models continue to consistently project more warming than observations show. In the classic scientific method when there is significant error in projections based on actual observation, the hypothesis has been falsified and the next step is generally to revise the hypothesis to try to make it more accurate. This is not what has happened. They just ignore inconvenient facts and make excuses and keep on keeping on with their model projections of increasing warmth without revising their hypothesis.

Andy, he can’t even understand that “a body of evidence” is basically a “collection” of stuff and that a collection, like a library, is not a process.

The Scientific Method, which Lord Attenborough has most likely never understood, is a process, almost mystical in its progress that is only understood, and even further, Comprehended by the initiated, of which group Cyndi FitzRoy is certainly not a member.

Too much like hard work, and why bother anyway when you can get free lessons in Verbalism from his abc and skeptical science blogggg.

A body of evidence isn’t just a collection of stuff. It is curated. The stuff that is in the collection is there because it has been collected and analysed with a degree of rigour. Darwin took a long time to collect a body of evidence that he used to develop his ideas but eugenicists just grasped at any old thing that confirmed their beliefs.

‘With regard to their recovery and resilience, Vercelloni et al. report that “despite undergoing a sustained regime of intense disturbances of multiple types, the French Polynesian outer-reef system shows a particularly high resilience capacity, with full recovery in coral cover repeatedly observed within 5-10 years following mass mortality events.”

Thanks for the tip el gordo. When you read the full paper a slightly different view is presented.

“full recovery in coral cover repeatedly observed within 5–10 years following mass mortality events (15, this study). This fast replenishment of communities seems to be at the highest level of recovery achievable for slow growing, habitat-forming organisms such as reef-building corals. A similar pattern is reported on tropical forests where systems that have evolved in more frequently disturbed natural environments also show the highest aptitude for recovery. Comparably, on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where many coral communities are exposed to different types of disturbances, the shortest coral community recovery periods observed extend 7–10 years, and are reported along with examples of longer duration and failure in recovery”

So it very much what happens in French Polynesia, stays in French Polynesia.

Just tip – if the article has the word ‘warmist’ in it – it has been slanted.

“There has been changes. What happened to the dinosaurs, how did they die off? Humans didn’t create it,” she said.

“We have volcano eruptions that actually spew out more carbon emissions and even the oceans do.”

Senator Hanson said there was “no scientific fact” about the impact climate change was having on Queensland – despite a wealth of credible, peer-reviewed research on the topic.

“There’s no peer review of these scientists,” she said.

Senator Hanson also appeared to question the Bureau of Meteorology’s climate data, hot on the heels of an LNP Senate candidate doing the same.

“They haven’t released the true facts and figures as far as temperature changes over the years. They’ve fiddled with facts and figures,” the One Nation leader said. ”

The last accusation about fiddling with Australia’s temperature is the BASIC TRUTH.

That is exactly what the BOM ( Bureau of Misinformation ) has done. They have ‘homogenised’ ( IE adjusted to you & me ) the temperature records of the past to present a picture that it was colder in the past. And this so the BOM’s logic goes, the present must be warmer. And the future will this be warmer still.

it’s complicated stuff, untying all the BOM’s lies, but if you have the patience. Ken does it state by state. And yes for South Australians reading here, the temperature record of the past in SA has been buggered around with as well.

In link the reference to Port Macquarie temps do not mention the fact that the AWS station is a long way from the manual site, which closed recently – that in itself would explain the difference between the Acorn data and the raw record.

Fitz
if the Bureau of Misinformation change the site of their weather station anywhere, not just Port Macquarie, it is the BOM’s obligation to tell the Australian public who they are reporting to – because we pay their salaries .

Also you have misunderstood something : The ACORN ‘data’ is all been fiddled with, by the BOM’s statisticians and mathematicians…It is not the actual data recorded by the BOM’s own staff in previous decades & generations.

So your ‘explanation’ is not an explanation. It is in fact irrelevant.

Bill the BOM have several datasets, and a record of the original data. They publish the FTP process if you want to download any of their data holdings. The ACORN-SAT dataset is designed to look at climate. My point stands, there were 2 sources for the Port data, similar to that for Darwin, there is no secret here. If the link was honest, it would have reported on the 2 station issue.

Fitz
I’m only interested in what was recorded at the time for the weather stations.

The rest is CRAP, the work of fiddling fully salaried cold hoppers hoping to make a ‘name’ for themselves by proving that the past was not what their own weather stations & staff recorded. .
Now Is that clear ?

AUDIO: 9min03sec: 23 Apr: ABC Breakfast: Unions ‘entirely comfortable’ with Labor’s Adani position
Doubts persist over Labor’s support for the Adani coalmine as Bill Shorten continues a campaign sweep through north Queensland.
The Opposition Leader says a Labor Government wouldn’t stand in the way of the project if it stacks up scientifically and commercially.
But he has pointedly refused to rule out a review of the mine’s environmental approvals and party insiders fear the mixed messages could be harming Labor’ chances in a number of marginal Queensland seats.

23 Apr: Radio NZ: Most New Zealanders accept purchase of overseas carbon credits
by Eric Frykberg
Only a tiny minority of people submitting to the government on climate change think that New Zealand should do all the hard work by itself.
The vast majority want this country to be able to buy carbon credits from other countries that do the heavy lifting on our behalf.
This has become evident from a summary of submissions on proposed changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme.

That scheme is up for review and a summary of submissions to that review has just been published by the Ministry for the Environment.
The list contained 253 comments from individuals and organisations.
Of those, a total of 115 got into the issue of buying greenhouse gas emissions from other countries.
Only 15 argued that such credits should be banned…

Overseas credits for emissions reductions have been used before, notably from Russia and Ukraine.
These were banned in 2015 because of doubts that they were genuine.
It is understood future international credits would be required to have more integrity…

Another issue that emerged from the Ministry of the Environment’s summary of submissions is a belief that agriculture should be included in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
In fact, the status of agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme was not part of the discussion’s process.
This is being left to the Climate Change Commission and its junior sibling, the Interim Climate Change Commission.
But 50 of 253 organisations submitted anyway.

Many argued that almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, and exempting this huge quantum from the Emissions Trading Scheme put a greater burden on everyone else.
Others said New Zealand would never meet its own goals on emissions reductions without dealing with all gases in the atmosphere and all sectors in the economy.
They added putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would lead to more efficient decisions about what to do with that land in the first place…https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/387568/most-new-zealanders-accept-purchase-of-overseas-carbon-credits

Pat, Appendix 2 / Appendix 5, hey what’s the diff, there’s only a few numbers between them, little tiny numbers, all of them, relax. Hard to get good staff these days that ‘know their numbers’, much easier to buy shonky cccccredits from Russiya. Maybe the Ukraine’s newly installed chosen puppet actor president Volodymyr will issue some brand new cuckoo credits, or maybe his prime minister – oy vey! – who is also called Volodymyr… Confused? Movie on at eleven.

22 Apr: MotherJones: I’m an Environmental Journalist and I Hate Earth Day
It’s become the subject line of a hellscape of PR pitches
by Rebecca Leber
It’s become fashionable for environmental journalists, myself included, to roll their eyes at the mere mention of Earth Day, the annual public-relations pitch frenzy for products from electric cars to food to clothes that purportedly embody environmental consciousness…
For those who devote much of their waking hours to thinking and working on monumental global challenges such as the looming catastrophe of climate change, Earth Day has the dissonance of a trite, too-little-too-late rite marked more by corporate greenwashing than a recognition of the Earth’s complexity…
Beginning in late March, emails with “Earth Day” as the subject line contain a hellscape of PR pitches (which makes sense given that PR professionals outnumber journalists). Within the generally dwindling profession of reporters and editors, the number of local environmental journalists has become especially problematic. An issue of The New Yorker recently highlighted a story about the difficulties in covering coal country. At Louisville’s Courier-Journal, for instance, readers used to “call with some sort of environmental complaint,” but as the “the staff got smaller and smaller, the bandwidth shrinks, and, eventually, the people stop calling, because you can’t help them.”…https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/04/im-an-environmental-journalist-and-i-hate-earth-day/

22 Apr: Apple Insider: Conservation International & Apple have teamed to protect mangrove forests
By Malcolm Owen
Apple is working with Conservation International to protect and restore a 27,000-acre mangrove forest in Cispata Bay, Colombia, in a bid to preserve a slowly disappearing part of the ecosystem.
Part of Apple’s Give Back campaign for Earth Day 2018, the project has Apple providing Conservation International with resources to try and rebuild parts of the mangrove forest. Working with local communities, the project intends to to create a carbon financing model to incentivize conservation and restoration of mangroves in the region…

In total, the partnership expects to sequester 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. The project also aims to be the first in the world to “fully quantify blue carbon credits in both trees and soil.” Blue carbon is the term used to refer to carbon stored in sediment below the water line…

22 Apr: AtlantaJournalConstitution: As Delta burns more jet fuel, it buys carbon offsets
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Since 2012, Delta has purchased more than 12 million carbon offsets for projects in areas it flies to — equivalent to the emissions from 1.7 million cars.
On Earth Day 2019 — Monday, April 22 — Delta says it will offset the emissions of flying more than 300,000 passengers, by buying nearly 50,000 carbon offsets.
Money from buying those carbon offsets will go toward Conservation Coast, which works to protect rainforests in Guatemala.

“It’s always a challenge to raise funds for forest preservation,” said Marco Cerezo, general director of FUNDAECO, which runs the Conservation Coast project. The project protects rainforests through community patrols, surveillance, biological monitoring and camera traps to monitor hunters and loggers. A forest protection payment program pays small amounts to residents to dissuade them from cutting down trees to grow corn.

The project gets carbon credits equivalent to the greenhouse gases that would have been emitted if the forest had been destroyed, and those credits are sold to companies like Delta. Airlines are a big buyer of carbon offsets, and Cerezo expects the shipping industry may also move in the same direction.

On some flights Monday, Delta is also distributing to passegers paper airplane cutouts made from seed paper with information on its environmental efforts. The seed paper sprouts wildflowers when planted in the ground.
The airline is doing the Earth Day campaign in part to encourage passengers to buy carbon offsets to offset the impact of their flights.

22 Apr: UK Telegraph: Big Oil doing its bit with voluntary carbon offset schemes
By Jillian Ambrose
Big Oil’s bid to go green has never been more literal. In the coming years, major oil companies are expected to invest billions of dollars planting forests, rolling out grasslands and establishing natural wetlands.

Italian oil giant Eni will create millions of hectares of forests across Africa, Royal Dutch Shell is eying Europe and BP is investing in forests across the US and China.
The drive is more than what critics of these companies might call philanthropic “greenwashing”. Together, the world’s most polluting businesses and environmentalists agree: restoring the world’s natural environments will help absorb the carbon dioxide already contributing to climate change – and can make good business…
To date, Shell has been one of the world’s biggest buyers of these carbon credits, which are generated through accredited nature investment schemes…

23 Apr: Guardian: Greta Thunberg backs climate general strike to force leaders to act
by Jonathan Watts, Global environment editor
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, has given her support for a general strike for the climate, saying the student movement she inspired needs more support from older generations to ensure politicians keep their promises under the Paris agreement.
Speaking at a public event in London as Extinction Rebellion protests continued in the capital, the initiator of the school strike for climate movement was typically frank about the scale of the problem the world faces and the impact her campaign has made…

At several points, she stressed the need for the protests to spread. “This is not just young people being sick of politicians. It’s an existential crisis,” Thunberg said. “It is something that will affect the future of our civilisation. It’s not just a movement. It’s a crisis and we must take action accordingly.”…

Traditional unions have so far been wary of joining the strikes. Although workers’ federations in Italy made Thunberg an honorary member, most others have given either tepid support or none due to concerns about the possible impact on jobs. But there is growing support in the UK, the US and other countries for a Green New Deal that would increase spending on renewable energy…

But the audience included all age groups, and just about every major environment organisation associated itself with the talk, which was hosted by the Quakers and co-organised by Guardian Events. When Thunberg appeared on stage, she was greeted with thunderous applause…

She told the audience she had been taken by surprise at the swift spread of a movement that began less than a year ago…“It is hard to understand what is happening during the last months. It has all happened so fast. I don’t have time to think it through,” she said…

Green party officials said they hoped the meeting on Tuesday could spur a new phase of cross-party collaboration on climate change, including monthly meetings, wider public consultations and an agreement that ***party manifestos should be vetted by an independent body such as the ***Committee on Climate Change to assess whether they are in line with the Paris agreement…

***Wikipedia: Committee on Climate Change: Members: As of June 2017, the chair is John Gummer, Lord Deben, and the other committee members are Baroness Brown, Professor Nick Chater, Dr Rebecca Heaton, Sir Brian Hoskins, Paul Johnson, Professor Corinne Le Quéré and Professor James Skea.
Baroness Brown is the Chair of the Adaptation Sub-Committee. The other Sub-Committee members are Professor Jim Hall, Professor Dame Anne Johnson, Ece Ozdemiroglu, Rosalyn Schofield and Sir Graham Wynne CBE.
As of April 2018, the Chief Executive of the Committee is Chris Stark…

Wikipedia: Lord Deben is Chairman of the UK’s independent Committee on Climate Change. He also chairs the sustainability consultancy Sancroft International, recycler Valpak, GLOBE International – the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment, the Association of Professional Financial Advisers and Veolia Water UK. He is a non-executive director of Veolia Voda, The Catholic Herald and the Castle Trust – a mortgage and investment firm. He is also a trustee of the ocean conservation charity, Blue Marine Foundation…
In July 2018 He was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) from the University of East Anglia…

FPA2: Lord Deben chairs the Nestle UK Advisory Committee on Nutrition, Health and Wellness, regularly chairs sessions for the World Agricultural Forum, and this year was a Chairman at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture in Abu Dhabi. His recent speaking engagements include major international conferences in Mexico, Delhi, Sydney as well as London and New York. He has headed the GLOBE discussions with senior Chinese ministers on the issues of climate change…

Wikipedia: Corinne Le Quéré is a French-Canadian scientist. She is Professor of Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of East Anglia and former Director of Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research…
She was co-Chair of the Global Carbon Project (GCP) from 2009 until 2013. Since 2014 she has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Future Earth platform for sustainability research. Within the GCP, she initiated and directs the annual publication of the Global Carbon Budget…

Wikipedia: James Skea is a Scottish academic, Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy, and a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the British government’s Committee on Climate Change. He was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC…
Skea has also served as a non-executive director of Blackrock New Energy Investment Trust Plc since 2009…

Wikipedia: Brian Hoskins
He was then Reader in atmospheric modelling (1976–1981) and professor of meteorology (1981–present) at the University of Reading. He was Head of the Department of Meteorology (1990–1996) at the University of Reading and President of the Royal Meteorological Society (1998–2000). He was a Royal Society council member (1999–present) and research professor (2001–present) and the first Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London (2008–2014)…
His group at the University of Reading has expanded to become one of the largest Meteorology departments in the world.[citation needed] He was instrumental in establishing the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, an international centre for climate change research. He has been Council member for the Natural Environment Research Council that funds and supports most of the environmental research in the UK, and has held numerous roles for the Met Office, most recently as non-executive director and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board.
He has made contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessments…

Wikipedia: Nick Chater
Chater was scientist-in-residence on eight seasons of the (BBC) Radio 4 series The Human Zoo…

3 Dec 2018: Club of Rome: The Club of Rome launches its Climate Emergency Plan at the European Parliament
Climate change is the most pressing global challenge, constituting an existential threat to humanity. The Club of Rome – Climate Emergency Plan (LINK) sets out 10 priority actions for all sectors and governments, and is an urgent wake up call. On December 4th 2018, Club of Rome Co-President Sandrine Dixson-Declève presented the Plan at the European Parliament to representatives from the EP, the European Commission, business and NGO leaders. The event was co-hosted by Heidi Hautala (MEP, VP European Parliament) and Jo Leinen (MEP)…https://www.clubofrome.org/2018/12/03/the-club-of-rome-launches-the-first-climate-emergency-plan/

Slideshare: Club of Rome, Climate Emergency Action Plan 20018
1.THE CLUB OF ROME CLIMATE EMERGENCY PLAN A Collaborative Call for Climate Action “Climate change is now reaching an end-game scenario, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences”. — Leading climate scientist Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber Director Emeritus Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Club of Rome Member)…

TWEET: Jeremy Leggett…Founder: Solarcentury & SolarAid:
“Contrary to belief, there is business support for the #ExtinctionRebellion agenda. ….We welcome the news that XR is evolving a new platform, XR Business, to engage business leaders.” Letter to the Times from 21 business leaders including me
LINK UK Times
21 Apr 2019

LETTER IS IN UK TIMES AND THE AUSTRALIAN – BOTH BEHIND PAYWALL.

Jeremy Leggett: Letter to the Times by business leaders supportive of Extinction Rebellion ….of which I am proud to be one
After nearly a thousand arrests of non-violent demonstrators in London over the last week, it is clear that the Extinction Rebellion movement has changed the conversation about climate change, where so many of us have tried and failed hitherto. This is a therefore a unique moment of opportunity, for all with eyes to see how quickly we are collectively sabotaging a livable future.

The letter to the Times by business leaders that follows was pulled together by the inestimable John Elkington at short notice. I would appeal to all in the business world who worry about climate change to engage with the XR business platform that the letter refers to.
A survival reflex could yet emerge in society, but as the anguished people of all ages blocking London streets and the thousands of striking schoolchildren know only too well, time is running out fast.

LETTER TO THE TIMES:
Sir, Contrary to belief, there is business support for the Extinction Rebellion (XR) agenda. The multi million-pound costs that the Extinction Rebellion protests have imposed on business are regrettable, as is the inconvenience to Londoners. But future costs imposed on our economies by the climate emergency will be many orders of magnitude greater.

Hard pressure drives change, but even the most committed businesses will need time to respond. We welcome the news that Extinction Rebellion is evolving a new platform, XR Business, to engage business leaders, investors and advisers. To drive things forward, the idea is to convene a meeting of XR activists and experts with business leaders and influencers.

Most businesses were not designed in the context of the developing climate emergency. Hence we must urgently redesign entire industries and businesses, using science-based targets.

22 Apr: Guardian: Polly Higgins, lawyer who fought for recognition of ‘ecocide’, dies aged 50
Campaigner and barrister attempted to create a law to criminalise ecological damage
by Jonathan Watts
Higgins, a British barrister, led a decade-long campaign for “ecocide” to be recognised as a crime against humanity. She sold her house and gave up a high-paying job so she could dedicate herself to attempting to create a law that would make corporate executives and government ministers criminally liable for the damage they do to ecosystems.

Such a legal instrument could be a powerful tool for conservationists, climate campaigners and activists trying to stop air and water pollution, but earlier proposals for this to be included in the Rome statute on international crimes against humanity were dropped in 1996.

Ten years ago Higgins set out to revive the idea. She wrote a book, Eradicating Ecocide, lobbied the United Nations law commission, organised mock trials and established a trust fund for “Earth protectors”. Although the law has yet to be recognised, momentum is growing as a result of the ongoing climate crisis and growing evidence that major companies lobbied against policies that could protect people from pollution and other environmental harm…

Campaigners say an ecocide law would take this and other campaigns to protect nature to new levels. The Guardian columnist George Monbiot wrote that it could make the difference between a habitable and uninhabitable world by shifting the balance of power and forcing executives to think twice about actions that might damage the planet.
After discovering she had an aggressive form of cancer and had only weeks to live, Higgins told Monbiot that the work she pioneered would go on after her death. “My legal team will continue undeterred,” she said…

21 Jan: World Economic Forum: In 2020, we need a new deal for nature
Written by:
Marco Lambertini, Director-General, WWF International
Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer (2009-2018), Unilever
Børge Brende, President, World Economic Forum
This year didn’t start with a good omen for the planet. Meanwhile, 2018 came in as the fourth-hottest year since records began, and the second-costliest year ever for extreme weather impacts. Previous years don’t provide solace either. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the 20 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1995; the five hottest have all come in the 2010s.

For climate change, it means the stakes couldn’t be higher and the need to act couldn’t be clearer. The final wake-up call came from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report late last year, which told us we have just 12 years to keep global warming within 1.5˚C if we are to avoid dangerous climate change…

Climate action in 2019 will be mobilised around the UN Secretary General’s September Summit and then later in 2020 when the Paris Agreement on Climate is due to begin. The ocean agenda is getting significant mobilisation from initiatives such as the Friends of Ocean Action and the High-Level Panel on the Ocean, in time for a large UN Ocean conference likely in 2020; the food and land-use agenda is being spearheaded by the Food and Land Use Coalition; and the Tropical Forest Alliance and other related public-private forestry action agendas are working to speed up delivery of deforestation commitments, also due in 2020…

Cristiana Paşca-Palmer, the Executive Secretary of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) also raised this concern with us. With her leadership, the “Sharm-el-Sheik to Beijing Action Agenda for Nature and People” was launched at the most recent CBD conference. This important initiative aims to catalyse a groundswell of action from all sectors and stakeholders in support of biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use, while enabling the mapping of current global efforts to assess its impact and identify any gaps…

Could a similar push on biodiversity action from across business and civil society be mobilised in time for the 15th CDB COP meeting in Beijing in 2020? This is a very important conference, as targets for nature for the decade 2020 to 2030 are to be agreed…

Ahead of the meeting, we will produce a report that sets out the risks we face to ourselves and our economy if we continue to destroy nature; and that sets out the opportunities to be had – especially for developing countries – if we slow down our destruction and restore the natural world…

This movement could gear itself up for a crescendo at the CBD COP in Beijing in 2020; and it could use that important conference as a springboard for a decade of delivery between 2020 and 2030 – 10 years of action that will slow down and then reverse our currently destructive relationship with nature, while promoting new pathways for growth, innovation and sustainable development.

“About 100 people lay [sic] down under the blue whale skeleton… Extinction Rebellion said it hoped the protest at the [Natural History] museum, which it called a ‘die-in’, would raise awareness of what they call the ‘sixth mass extinction’. Most of the protesters finished their lie-down protest after about half an hour.” What? Thirty minutes and they were buggered knackered starving for a Maccas™ and a Starbuck™ and needed to check their Apple™ and twitter™ updates? Pity the blue whale skeleton didn’t ‘accidentally’ fall on them and then the spoiled kiddly-winks would know what a real first-hand ‘die-in extinction’ was like [see photo] –

But wait – then the child prophet / saint / martyr Joan of Arc Greta Dumburger appeared before them (as if in a vision, no less) to bless their mad violent crusade holy blessed sanctimonious tantrum by saying they were “making a difference”. The ecstatic morons shouted back, “We love you!” Some of the weaker ones among them, vegans with horrific b.o., fainted and fell to the ground, shaking as if in a delirious fit. OK, I’m making it up now but let’s roll with it… “The 16-year-old… told the crowd [we] ‘will never stop fighting for this planet’.” Oh dear, Asperger’s Syndrome is so debilitating… won’t somebody take her home, please. “Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has said that during her 36-year career she had never known a single police operation to result in so many arrests”. Hey Cressida (isn’t that a Toyota or something?), the ‘battle’ has only begun… clink!

Jo Khan of the the ABC Science unit is doing her level best to discredit Peter Ridd and his evidence about the Great Barrier Reef..She says the case before judge Vasta was ‘just’ an argument over work place relations.

I bet it’s not a coincidence that the movie is titled exactly like the books – “Climate Change: The Facts”. It’s yet another thing that will appear as top result in google when someone searches the phrase.